There must be a party in the Rockstar offices right now, as the launch of Grand Theft Auto V proved to be an unprecedented success. The game made over $800 million just from day one sales, and the next two days crossed the threshold of $1 billion in sales. But is this enough to impress Fable creator Peter Molyneux? No, apparently it is not. In a speech at a Mobile Entertainment conference Molyneux remarked that GTA V's sales are less impressive than those of some mobile games.

"The newly released Grand Theft Auto V is a game that's everywhere, you can hardly avoid it. It will achieve around $1 billion in revenue on consoles in just one month. Sounds impressive, doesn't it? No. That's not impressive." It's worth noting that Molyneux's benchmark of a billion dollars has already been met, in 10% of his predicted time.

"What is outstandingly impressive is the success of mobile companies like Supercell, who has released games including Hay Day and Clash of Clans. Those games, which were released 18 months ago, are achieving revenue between $3 million and $5 million each day. That is impressive."

Alright, we get it - when you're giving a speech to mobile developers, you have to talk up mobile games. Supercell's sales figures are indisputably impressive, Molyneux's right about that. But at the same time, you probably don't have to dis the new fastest-selling entertainment product is history to get that point across.

Learn to talk peter, a game with a budget of 250 million vs games that cost a fraction of that, so in percentage terms you could find indy and mobile titles that made the same or more return on their initial investment.

I bet peter would be happy as a hog in heat if he ever sold a billion worth of anything. And judging from the latest godeus build he is trying to do it nickle and dime style. Since he seems to be making a cow clicker cash farm rather than an actual game.

Uhmmm he is both wrong and correct. Those mobile games do make a good amount of money but they also invest in them quite a bit over time.Though there are games that flat out destroy GTA in profits over time. World of Tanks, LoL and MAYBE WoW probably make a lot more then GTA 5 will do in its lifetime, in just one year.

Well, I guess he'll have to show the world what a successful game really is and make billions from Godus. That'll teach those damned Scots and their highly successful and profitable franchise that doesn't use microtransactions!

I've never really liked this guy. He's always just rubbed me the wrong way I guess. Different personalities and such. I think it started when I watched him promise all these things in Fable, and then failed to deliver and he just kept doing the same thing over and over. He's always seemed a bit too arrogant for me to like him.This is not helping change my opinion in the slightest.

Im not suprised by the sales (its GTA, it was obvious that it was going to sell incredibly well) but I am impressed by him not being impressed, this is the guy that sees magic in having a leaf grow in real time. I was expecting something more then "meh, seen better".

I read a post might have been on here, where one of the posters said to have worked with the guy.

The guys really brilliant has great ideas, but he lacks focus, he jumps form idea to idea, wants to work on 50 different things at the same time, has no reguard for the work involved, and often gets so far to finally realize it cannot be done (due to engine or time or w/e) and ends up dropping stuff left and right.

That was how i recall the poster describing working with the man.

All that and he has had people for the last 20 years kissing his ass telling him how great he is. Hey peter you are a creative guy but you are not ceo, or even department head material. You need guidance badly, and you need it fast, else your game guru days are numbered, you no longer have EA, or activision, or microsoft to blame for stifling your greatness, you games fail now you fail.

I think 22 cans will go down in a heap of flames. all far more pr than substance, with peter once again overreaching and not reaching the actual finish.

Proverbial Jon:I've always respected Molyneux, not for the pre-emptive over-hyping of his own products, but for his enthusiasm towards gaming in general.

So, the question is... when did he become such a douche?

To be fair he's always been a bit of a douche, but the loveable kind. In true Molyneux fashion, hes gone up on stage and developed tunnel vision towards his target audience, forgetting that everything hes says will be taken elsewhere.

Seriously, once you start to view Molyneux as like the old drunk relative at a family gathering who keeps bullshitting, it gets a lot more acceptable. :p

Molyneux's just viewing things from a different perspective. Traditional box games have the majority of their sales in the beginning, with a very low tail. Mobile games are often F2P, with a much larger tail. If he wants to compare the two properly he'll need to take into account overall predicted sales for the foreseeable future.

Assuming that GTAV stops selling well after a month or two (HAHA), can a mobile game consistently make enough money each day, and for enough days, to fully match it? Anyways, I don't think it's even worth comparing the two types, as both payment models come with different expected development styles and budgeting. They are both valid types of games, but fundamentally too different to have a valuable comparison.

"But at the same time, you probably don't have to dis the new fastest-selling entertainment product is history to get that point across."

Yeah, you do, actually. AAA just isn't sustainable. How many developers can spend $265M on production? How many publishers will now be chasing after Take-Two's success? And how many developers will fold because that success can't be as easily imitated?

On the other hand, Supercell built Clash of Clans with a budget that's estimated at less than $250K. For a long time, Clash of Clans was seeing revenues of $3-5M/day, or put another way, up to 20 times the investment (2,000% ROI) every day.

Now, $800M in gross revenue is nothing to scoff at, but the cost of and thus breakeven point for GTA5 was $265M. The remaining $535M was, presumably, profit. Take-Two managed to get just barely over 2 times their investment (200% ROI) on day one. That's great. That's awesome. But will GTA5 bring in $535M every day for even a week? I don't think so.

The descent of the sales curve for successful console games from the peak is quite steep but the product life cycles are much longer. However, the descent of the sales curve for successful mobile games is much more gradual, although the product life cycles are shorter.

In addition, while a day-one $800M figure is exciting, if you're an entrepreneur like Molyneux, you're impressed by repeatable successes. Securing $250K might not be the easiest thing in the world, but it's a lot more practical for startups than raising $265M.

At least Rockstar delivers on their promises, and then some. And they get a lot of money afterwards. This guy's getting rich by lying to people. Or worse. He's promising but is too incompetent to deliver.

AndrewC:Molyneux has always been a moron, will always continue to be a moron and will out-moron any moron that ever did their hardest to be a moron!

Well, Molyneux you can be unimpressed all you want. After the unmitigated disaster-piece that was Fable 3, Peter, You don't get to criticize Rockstar North. (You know, especially since you crawled away to develop mobile games)